Jacobin Radio The Dig: Fascist Police State w/ Alberto Toscano and Stuart Schrader
8 snips
Sep 18, 2025 
Alberto Toscano, a scholar focused on fascism and race, joins Stuart Schrader, a professor specializing in the transnational history of policing, for a riveting discussion on the U.S. escalating authoritarianism. They explore the implications of Trump's federal policing and the politicization of ICE. The conversation dives into the historical ties between policing and U.S. fascist tendencies, revealing how liberal complicity has made Washington D.C. a testing ground for repression. Their insights connect the war on drugs and terror, underscoring the risks of state violence in contemporary society.
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Paramilitary Aesthetic In Street Policing
- Stuart Schrader recounts ICE agents and others adopting a 'paramilitary' aesthetic from buying gear to looking like special operators.
- He links this aesthetic to the broader policification of the military and special-operator culture.
Fascization Can Ride Existing Racialized State Power
- The U.S. already contains institutionalized racial terror and policing, making an external 'fascist takeover' often redundant.
- Those sedimented structures can be rapidly activated to intensify authoritarian rule.
Monitor Campus Policies As Repression Signals
- Watch university policy shifts and administrations' agreements with federal agencies as early signals of repression normalization.
- Demand transparency and resist data-sharing agreements that empower federal targeting of campus activists.
